Denmark to send spy plane to track piracy off Somalia

COPENHAGEN - Denmark will send a surveillance aircraft to help in the fight against piracy off Somalia starting next January, Defence Minister Nick Haekkerup said Friday.

"When the monsoon period is over pirates will have better chances and so we have decided to send the aircraft to the area," Haekkerup told reporters following a meeting of the Parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee.

Haekkerup said the aircraft would be joining Denmark's support and command vessel Absalon, which is to be deployed to the seas off Somalia in November for a further six months as part of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield.

Denmark, which is currently chair of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, has seen many of its ships attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden while several Danes have been taken hostage.

The International Maritime Bureau said last week that piracy has reached record levels with 352 attacks reported worldwide so far this year.